Author Description

The Concise Dictionary of ballet represents an attempt to cover the whole ballet scene, past and present its personalities, works, companies, places of performance, and technical terms, with some consideration to modern dance, ethnic dance, and ballroom dance. There are also special entries for cities which have in one way or another played an important role in ballet history, for certain familiar literary subjects (e.g. Faust and Macbeth), and for dramatists and composers whose works have often been adapted for ballet(e.g. García Lorca, Goldoni, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Bach, Beethoven, and Berio). It is also the first English-language ballet dictionary to provide bibliographical references, supplementing the individual entries. The main references used are listed separately in the Select Bibliography. Titles are entered according to their Anglo-American usage. All original titles are given, the Russian ones in transcription. Where there has been any doubt whether the English or foreign versions would be preferred, cross-references have been given.